WAWA/WeAreWideAwake is my Public Service to America as a muckracker who has journeyed seven times to Israel Palestine since June 2005.
WAWA is dedicated to confronting media and governments that shield the whole
truth.

We who Are Wide
Awake are compelled by the "fierce urgency of Now" [Rev MLK, Jr.] to raise
awareness and promote the human dialogue about many of the crucial issues of our
day: the state of our Union and in protection of democracy, what life is like
under military occupation in Palestine, the Christian EXODUS from the Holy Land,
and spirituality-from a Theologically Liberated Christian Anarchist
POV.

"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils."George Washington's Farewell Address - 1796

We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. -July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence

HomeBlogJune 2010 June 21, 2010: Israel's Investigation and Intelligence Flaws from the Mavi Marmara to Bilin

June 21, 2010: Israel's Investigation and Intelligence Flaws from the Mavi Marmara to Bilin

June 21, 2010:Israel's Investigation and Intelligence Flaws from the Mavi Marmara to Bilin

June 22, 2010: Email from Nobel
Peace Prize Laureate
Mairead Maguire

Choose
Peace – End the Siege of Gaza and Occupation of Palestine

By Mairead
Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate

On
Saturday 5th June, 2010, 35
heavily armed Israeli Navy Seals commandeered our boat, MV Rachel Corrie, one
of the Freedom Flotilla, in International waters (30 miles off the coast of
Gaza). As they did so, we 19 humanitarian activists and crew, sat on the deck.

We were
quietly anxious, aware of the solitary figure in the wheelhouse with his hands
held high against the window, in full view of the three Israeli warships, 4
approaching zodiacs and 2 commando carriers, whose guns were pointing in his
direction.

I
personally wondered if the courageous Derek Graham would live to tell the tale,
conscious of what happened on the Turkish ship, Mavi Marmara, earlier in the week.

On Monday
3lst May, 2010, we heard via satellite phone that the Israeli Commandoes had
boarded in International waters, from helicopter and zodiacs, the Turkish Ship,
MV Mavi Marmara, killing and injuring many people.

It was
later confirmed that 8 Turkish people, l Turkish/USA, unarmed civilians had
been shot (2 in the head and several in the back).

All 6
boats on the Freedom Flotilla had been commandeered by Israeli Navy and taken
to Israel and during this attack by Israel over 40 people were injured.

These
killings of unarmed civilians was devasting news to us all and something we
never expected to happen.

All those
participating in the Freedom Flotilla participated because they were moved by
the suffering of the people of Gaza.

They were
not Terrorists, they were human beings, who cared for other human beings in
their suffering.

Gaza, cut
off by land crossing, sea (its port had been closed for over 40 years since
Israeli occupation and had the Free Gaza Rachel Corrie Cargo boat been able to enter Gaza, it would
have been the first Cargo boat ever to do so).

Gaza has
rightly been been described as the largest open air prison in the world.
With Israel holding all the keys for its one and a half million people living
under a policy of collective punishment by Israeli. Under siege for over
3 years now, with a shortage of medicine, basic materials to rebuild their
homes, after the 22 day bombardment by Israeli in Dec/Jan.2009 has left Gaza
and its people, a place of suffering and isolation.

The
flotilla was not only to bring humanitarian aid, books for children, toys,
writing material, but to help break the siege of Gaza, which is slowly
strangling its people.

The
violations of international law committed by Israel are well documented by the
UN, and many independent human rights bodies.

All of
these violations of International laws and norms are committed under the guise
of ‘national security’ and A policy of
isolating Gaza to weaken Hamas.

It is a
policy that is clearly not working. As we have learned in N.Ireland,
violence never works, so why not try talking to Hamas, as the British
Government had to talk to rep. of IRA and Loyalist paramilitaries, in order to
move to peace.

The
brutal and illegal attack of aid ships in International waters on May 3lst and
the subsequent boarding of the MV Rachel Corrie, also in international Waters,
is a symptom of the culture of impunity under which Israel operates.

The
Israeli Government was quick to blame the activists on board the MV Mavi
Marmara, claiming that they attacked first and were members of terrorist
groups.

They also
claimed that the HLL the Turkish Humanitarian Group who organized the Mavi
Marmara had terrorist links. The HLL is not a banned organization in Turkey
and has no links to terrorist organizations. It was disappointing to see
how many International governments and media outlets immediately accepted
Israel’s version of events without further investigation.

Sure,
there have been calls for a ‘prompt, Impartial, credible and transparent’
investigation into the events of May 3lst by the United Nations Security
Council.

Yet the United
States and others seem to think that Israel can conduct such an investigation
on its own.

In the
words of my colleague, Nobel Jody Williams, this is like “the fox
accounting for the number of chickens left in the henhouse” such a response
cannot stand, and nothing less than An Independent investigation will be
acceptable to the international community.

This
attack on the Freedom Flotilla is a tipping point. It is time for the
International Community to finally stop allowing Israel to act with blatant
disregard for Human Life, Human rights and International Law.

The
partial lifting of the siege shows what International pressure can achieve, but
it is not enough and only a full lifting of the siege can bring re freedom to
the people of Gaza.

It is time
for Israel to choose peace. It is time for world leaders and the
international Community to join together and call on Israel to lift the siege
of Gaza completely, End the occupation of Palestine and allow the Palestinian
people their right to

Self-determination.

To help
bring closer that day we can all do something. Not everyone can go with
The Freegaza boat people, but supporting the BDS campaign, calling for an end
to EU special trading status with Israel insisting that USA end its
economic/military assistance to Israel
until it upholds it International commitments. Palestine is a key to peace in
the Middle East so by us all refusing to be ‘silent’ in the face of Israel’s
continued apartheid policies we can all bring closer an end to all violence in
the Middle East.

Israel’s investigation
of the Memorial Day massacre aboard the Mavi
Marmara concluded that Israeli commando
reactions were “appropriate” and that the soldiers “lacked sufficient
intelligence.”

Surviving eyewitnesses who
had been aboard the Turkish-flagged
ship have reported that under the cover of darkness, Israel began
its
assault upon the civilians with percussion grenades, tear gas and a hail
of
bullets. Read those reports here:

On June 20, 2010, Haaretz reported “The
Israel Navy's internal probe into its deadly commando raid of a
humanitarian
aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip has found serious defects in the
planning
and intelligence aspects of the operation, Israel Radio reported on
Sunday
[and] concluded that the commando unit that embarked on the May 31 raid was inadequately prepared and lacked sufficient intelligence when
approaching
the activists.

“The investigation concluded that the
raid on the ship should have only been conducted after hosing the
attackers
down with water hoses and smoke grenade. The navy admitted that they
were
prepared for ‘resistance like we encounter in Bil'in.’”

One of the commanders
involved in the
attack said that "I
still awake at three A.M. every morning and ask
myself: Damn it, how did we not know more?"[1]

On 25 May 2010, The
Guardian quoted Yigal Palmor, an Israeli
foreign ministry spokesman: "The boats will not be allowed to enter Gaza
territorial waters. This is a territory in a self-declared state of war
with
Israel. There can be no uncontrolled transportation in or out of Gaza."
[2]

Lynda Brayer, a
graduate of the Hebrew University Faculty of Law, is an Israeli human
rights
lawyer who specializes in the laws of war and international law and she wrote:

“Since no state of
war existed
at the time, the attack on these vessels constitutes an act of war against those
governments under
whose flags the vessels were sailing. The attack falls within the
purview
of the ius ad bellum, those
laws which govern the resort to
armed conflict.
Israel’s action does not fall
into the category of the ius in
bello or the laws which govern the
actual conduct of war.Because this attack was carried out in
international
waters, the status of the relationship between Hamas, or any other
Palestinian
body, and the state of Israel is of no relevance whatsoever. Likewise, neither
the
blockade of Gaza nor Israel’s claims and legal interpretations regarding
it has
any bearing
on its acts of aggression in
international waters.”

[3]

“Israel
claims that its blockade is directed simply at the Hamas
government in Gaza, and is limited to so-called 'security' items. Yet
When U.S.
Senator John Kerry visited Gaza last year, he was shocked to discover
that the
Israeli blockade included staple food items such as lentils, macaroni
and
tomato paste. Furthermore, Gisha, the Israeli Legal Center for Freedom
of
Movement, has documented numerous official Israeli government statements
that
the blockade is intended to put 'pressure' on Gaza's population, and
collective
punishment of civilians is an illegal act under international law.”
[4]

Back to Bil’in

Due to a
mainstream media blackout on the five-year
struggle in Bil’in, most of the world is unaware of the thousands of
nonviolent
Palestinians and growing legions of Israeli and International activists
who
have been waging a nonviolent campaign of resistance to the construction
of the
route of Israel's Wall in the Occupied Territories and in seeking an end
to the
occupation of Palestine.

Farmers,
mothers, children and activists have been
braving teargas, beatings, bullets, arrest, and even death to rise up
against
the route of The Wall/Fence and most well equipped army in the world,
with
nothing more than their own bodies and the innate persistent
determination
within all people for justice and freedom.

In 2004 the
International Court of Justice ruled that
The Wall is a violation of International Law because it cuts through the
West
Bank appropriating Palestinian land and destroying Palestinian villages
and
economy in order to establish more illegal settlements.

The
Wall/Fence in Bil'in and the Israeli army prohibit
the indigenous people to tend and harvest their olive groves. Over 2,003
dunums
of prime agricultural land have been confiscated by The Electric Fence.
The
Israelis have built apartments for Jewish only settlers, which the
indigenous
people are forbidden to even enter.

In Bil’in,
the Green Line is five miles from The
Wall/Fence and the Popular Committee in Bil’in has been fighting the
Israeli
government and forces with legal actions and nonviolent demonstrations.

The Israeli
government attempts to justify their land
theft by returning to the Ottoman Law that states if the landowner
doesn't tend
his land it can be confiscated by the State. The Israeli army and the
Wall/Fence
have prevented the indigenous people from accessing their legally owned
land,
thus depriving them of food, income and human rights.

After the
indigenous people of Bil’in brought their
case to the Israeli Municipal Court and the High Court; both courts
agreed the
building of the settlement dwellings was indeed illegal and ordered the
construction to cease in January 2006. Construction continued and the
settlers
have moved in.

The High
Court accepted these 'facts on the ground'
but the indigenous people and all who believe in equal human rights and
international law will never give up seeking justice and resisting the
route of
the wall/fence. In many West Bank villages, the indigenous people are
being
joined by growing numbers of locals, Israelis and internationals and
many have
been injured, arrested and yet return for more-except those who have
been
imprisoned, incapacitated or killed by Israeli forces.

The indigenous people
of Bil'in brought their case against the settlement to the Municipal
Court and
that Court agreed the building of the settlement dwellings was illegal
and
ordered construction to cease. But, building continued and the day I was
there,
a half dozen USA made Caterpillar tractors were moving earth for the
anticipated paved road that only Jewish colonists- most of them from the
USA-will be allowed to travel upon.

My first visit to Bil’in was in January
2006. I
met many locals and a few internationals and Israelis who had created
their own
facts on the ground with an outpost where they held the ground 24/7.
They slept
for weeks at a time inside the 10x10 brick house on sleeping bags on a
dirt
floor, a few hundred yards from where a settlement of 700 upscale
apartments
was being erected for Jewish only settlers upon legally owned
Palestinian
property.

I was inspired to go
to Bil'in, after attending a power point lecture in Gainesville, Florida
given
by a Palestinian and Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli member of Anarchists
Against
the Wall/AAtW.

Pollak was also a keynote speaker at the 5th
International conference in Bil’in, but in November 2006, Pollak informed this reporter:

"I was six
years old at my first demonstration and active on my own at thirteen. I
am 23
now. When they started to build the Apartheid Wall in the West Bank I
would go
a few times a week and watch them deceive the world. The Israeli
government
successfully marketed the Apartheid Wall as a security barrier. But it
is all
about segregation, separation and ethnic cleansing.

"Civilian
uprising and non-violent activism is not like the Gandhi movie. It’s not
carrying posters and saying we don’t like your wall, go away. We stand
in front
of Caterpillar’s knowing we will be shot and arrested. I was shot five
times in
the last two years by rubber bullets, which are 1/2-inch steel bullets
covered
with plastic. I have been shot in the head and the more experience I
have the
scarier it is. One learns to recognize the ritual of it all: when the
IOF will
begin using the Billy clubs, when the tear gas will come, when the
bullets will
come.

“We are not a
dialogue group, we are an Israeli organization and we are not colonial
liberators. All the strategy is done by Palestinians, we are with them
seeking
justice and giving support. There is no price to high to pay for
freedom,
equality and universal rights. Without justice there can be no peace.

"Negotiations
alone
will not secure freedom for the Palestinian people. During the
negotiations of the so-called Oslo Peace Process from 1993-2000, Israel
simply
imposed its will on the Palestinians, using its overwhelming military
and
economic power, and US support. During seven years of supposed peace,
Palestinians saw 200,000 new Israeli settlers arrive in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories, the same number of settlers that had arrived
there in
the previous 26 years.

"However,
the
recent grassroots struggle against Israel's Wall has demonstrated that
it may
be possible to counter Israel's overwhelming power, and its exploitation
of
negotiations, through nonviolent resistance. The Wall, is just one
blatant
Israeli attempt to impose its will, and has become a focus for civilian
resistance.

"Although
Israel marketed the Wall as a security barrier, logic suggests such a
barrier
would be as short and straight as possible. Instead, it snakes deep
inside the
West Bank, resulting in a route that is twice as long as the Green Line,
the
internationally recognized border. Israel chose the Wall's path in order
to
dispossess Palestinians of the maximum land and water, to preserve as
many
Israeli settlements as possible, and to unilaterally determine a border.

"In order to
build the Wall Israel is uprooting tens of thousands of ancient olive
trees
that for many Palestinians are also the last resource to provide food
for their
children.

"The
Palestinian aspiration for an independent state is also threatened by
the Wall,
as it isolates villages from their mother cities and divides the West
Bank into
disconnected cantons [Bantustans/ghettos]. The Israeli human rights
organization B`Tselem conservatively estimates that 500,000 Palestinians
are
negatively impacted by the Wall.

"Faced with a
history of suffering, Palestinians have no alternative but to struggle.
The
only question is how? Killing diminishes our humanity, and Israel's
occupation,
which has killed thousands of Palestinians, shouldn't be our teacher. It
is
time for both sides to refuse killing.

"Though
Palestinians have employed nonviolence since 1929, they have seen little
evidence that it will help them to achieve freedom. In 2003-2004, the
West Bank
village of Budrus decided to set an example for how nonviolence can
defeat the
Wall.

"All the
people
of Budrus mobilized, and were joined by Israeli and international
activists. In
55 nonviolent marches, Israeli soldiers injured more than 300 people,
arrested
33 and killed one, as the villagers, with their bodies alone, attempted
to stop
the destruction of their land. Faced with Budrus` determined protests,
the
Israeli government eventually moved the Wall to the Green Line. The
village
saved 300 acres of its land and 3000 olive trees. Children, women and
old
people were among the heroes of Budrus` nonviolent struggle.

"Throughout
the
West Bank, nine protesters were killed in marches against the Wall,
thousands
were injured and hundreds arrested. Hundreds of civilian protests
throughout
the West Bank are the reason the world learned of the injustice of the
Wall. As
a direct result, the International Court of Justice at the Hague ruled
in 2004
that Israel's construction of the Wall violated international law.

"The village
of
Budrus and the International Court of Justice ruling represent victories
for
nonviolent resistance. Another success of the joint struggle was the
connection
forged between Palestinians and the Israelis who joined them in their
resistance. This connection, stronger than anything that ideas could
create,
was unwittingly forged by the Israeli army, through their beatings, the
joint
arrests and the bullets. Joining Palestinians in nonviolent struggle has
allowed some Israelis to voice very clearly that the struggle against
occupation and for freedom is not a Palestinian struggle alone, but is
their
struggle as well.

"We believe
that, as with Apartheid South Africa, Americans have a vital role to
play in
ending Israeli occupation - by speaking out, coming to Palestine as
witnesses,
or standing with Palestinians in nonviolent resistance.

"We are
confident that Israeli occupation will one day be defeated, as were
other US
government supported repressive regimes - Apartheid South Africa,
Pinochet`s
Chile and racial segregation in the United States. There is no price too
great
to pay for freedom, and nothing will deter us from achieving this goal."

On one of my four
trips to Bil'in, after chanting a while in front of the soldiers,
Jonathan was
the first down the steep rocky hill and over a metal railing to grab the
roll
of razor sharp barbed wire that is in front of the wall/fence in
order
to shake it. He was immediately joined by a few dozen locals and other
AAtW,
who were swiftly greeted by the first of dozens of sound bombs-thick
orange
plastic grenades that hit the ground with a deafening blast.

I was half way down
the hill when a teenager next to me threw a rock at a soldier and I know
that
action alone can get one killed or arrested, so I headed back up the
hill
before the tear gas and rubber bullets assaulted the crowd at the barbwire. By the time I
made it
up the hill the first of hundreds of rubber bullets were being shot into
the
crowd. Only two internationals were hit and other than a few Palestinian
adolescents and young boys throwing rocks all remained nonviolent. I was
told
that because of the large International presence no live ammo was fired;
although the week before a Frenchman took a bullet in the arm while
standing
next to a group of children. He was back at the Friday ritual with a
cast and
sling on.

Another
who was
wounded in Bilin and also arrested and jailed for being aboard the
Freedom Flotilla boat the MV Rachel Corrie, is Nobel Peace Prize
Laureate, Maried
Corrigan-Maguire.

On June 6, 2008,
Israeli Forces assaulted Maried Corrigan-Maguire with tear gas during
the
Friday afternoon ritual she attended after speaking at Bil'in's third
annual
international conference supporting nonviolent protests against the wall
and
military occupation of the West Bank agricultural village.

At the conclusion of
the second annual Bil'in conference, on April 21st, 2007, Mairead
Maguire, was
shot with a rubber-coated steel bullet by Israeli Forces an hour after a
press
conference where she stated:

"Thanks to
the
media here for telling the truth…Bring this truth to whatever country
you come
from. Non-violence will solve the problems here in Israel and Palestine.
Often,
the world sees only violence. But Palestinians are a good people,
working
towards non-violence. This Wall must fall! It is an insult to the human
family
and to the world– that we are building Apartheid Walls in the 21st
Century!
More than forty years of Occupation and Land Appropriation."

Máiread didn’t make
it to Bil’in this year as planned due to the volcanic ash that closed
down the
Tel Aviv Airport, so instead she wrote:

“Your
Palestinian
Popular Nonviolent Resistance movement is so important because You are
asserting to the Israeli Government and the World that Palestinians,
like all
human beings, are entitled to dignity and freedom, freedom of Movement,
Freedom
of expression, and access to work, health care and education. Your
Peoples’ movement is touching the hearts of many people around the
world, who
are increasingly coming to recognize the truth, that the Palestinian
people
have been deprived from all of these things for decades by dispossession
and
Israeli military occupation.

“Increasing
numbers
of world citizens are beginning to support and work for your call for
the
immediate ending of Israeli occupation, full implementation of
humanitarian and
International Law, and the Right of the Palestinian People to
self-determination. They are also supporting your call for the immediate
removal of military checkpoints in the West Bank, ending of settlements,
house
demolitions, as well as the separation wall, and for the lifting of the
unacceptable and inhuman siege of the Gaza strip. Your call to support
the BDS
campaign to end occupation and Apartheid (as it did in South Africa) is
gaining
momentum with Citizens, international Bodies, and Governments and they
are
increasingly beginning to ‘break the silence’ and call upon Israel to
implement
justice and peace for the Palestinians.

“I
thank you for
your great spirit of nonviolent love in action, and encourage you to
keep Hope
alive and keep on building Palestinian Unity – united the Palestinian
people
will succeed. Believe passionately in peace and justice and it will come
out of
the seeds of nonviolence and sacrifice you, and your families, are
making on
behalf of us all, the Human Family. Salaam, Shalom, Peace, Mairead
Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate. 21 April 2010.
www.peacepeople.com

Previously Mairead also stated:

"Hope for
the
future depends on each of us taking nonviolence into our hearts and
minds and
developing new and imaginative structures which are nonviolent and
life-giving
for all. Some people will argue that this is too idealistic. I believe
it is
very realistic. I am convinced that humanity is fast evolving to this
higher
consciousness. For those who say it cannot be done, let us remember that
humanity learned to abolish slavery. Our task now is no less than the
abolition
of violence and war.

"While
Governments can make a difference, in the final analysis it is the
individual –
that is each one of us – that will bring the dream of a nonviolent world
to
reality. We, the people must think and act non-violently. We must not
get stuck
in the past as to do so will destroy the imagination and creativity.

"To change
our
world we need a spiritual and a political evolution. The political steps
are
often very obvious: uphold Human rights, and International Laws, demand
our
Governments meet their obligations under these Laws, support and reform
United
Nations, etc., However, all the legislation, resolutions, and fine talk
will be
of no use, if we do not as men and women evolve and become transformed,
so that
we, the human family, achieve a more enlightened and humane way of
living
together, and solving conflicts.

“We can
rejoice and
celebrate today because we are living in a miraculous time. Everything
is
changing and everything is possible.”

“They're building a wall.
And at such a cost. Land, money and safety. And all the lives lost. A wall made
of brick but bricks can be broken, when the people of Zion have finally awoken!
And said no more walls, no more refugees. No more keeping people upon their
knees. And before apartheid was ended they were building a wall."

"HOPE has two children.The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it."-St. Augustine

"He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust." - Aquinas

Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

" In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."-Mother Teresa

“You cannot talk like sane men around a peace table while the atomic bomb itself is ticking beneath it. Do not treat the atomic bomb as a weapon of offense; do not treat it as an instrument of the police. Treat the bomb for what it is: the visible insanity of a civilization that has ceased...to obey the laws of life.”- Lewis Mumford, 1946

The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership....a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures." - William Fulbright

“Any nation that year after year continues to raise the Defense budget while cutting social programs to the neediest is a nation approaching spiritual death.” - Rev. MLK

Establishment of Israel

"On the day of the termination of the British mandate and on the strength of the United Nations General Assembly declare The State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel: it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion it will guarantee freedom of religion [and] conscience and will be faithful to the Charter of the United Nations." - May 14, 1948. The Declaration of the Establishment of Israel